Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

David Allen reads an all-new edition of his popular self-help classic for managing work-life balance in the 21st century - now updated for the new challenges facing individuals and organizations in today's rapidly changing world. Since it was first published more than 15 years ago, David Allen's Getting Things Done has become one of the most influential business books of its era and the ultimate book on personal organization.

The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It

Based on Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal's wildly popular course The Science of Willpower,The Willpower Instinct is the first book to explain the new science of self-control and how it can be harnessed to improve our health, happiness, and productivity. Informed by the latest research and combining cutting-edge insights from psychology, economics, neuroscience, and medicine, The Willpower Instinct explains exactly what willpower is, how it works, and why it matters.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

In this must-listen book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, students, and businesspeople - both seasoned and new - that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called "grit". Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur "genius" Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success.

Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business

Drawing on the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics - as well as the experiences of CEOs, educational reformers, four-star generals, FBI agents, airplane pilots, and Broadway songwriters - this painstakingly researched book explains that the most productive people, companies, and organizations don't merely act differently. They view the world, and their choices, in profoundly different ways.

Anxious: Using the Brain to Understand and Treat Fear and Anxiety

Collectively, anxiety disorders are our most prevalent psychiatric problem, affecting about 40 million adults in the United States. In Anxious, Joseph LeDoux, whose NYU lab has been at the forefront of research efforts to understand and treat fear and anxiety, explains the range of these disorders, their origins, and discoveries that can restore sufferers to normalcy. LeDoux's groundbreaking premise is that we've been thinking about fear and anxiety in the wrong way.

Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be

In business, the right behaviors matter. But getting it right is tricky. Even when we acknowledge the need to change what we do and how we do it, life has a habit of getting in the way, upsetting even the best-laid plans. And just how do we manage those situations that can provoke even the most rational among us into behaving in ways we would rather forget?

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive 21st-century economy.

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Have you ever wanted to learn a language or pick up an instrument, only to become too daunted by the task at hand? Expert performance guru Anders Ericsson has made a career of studying chess champions, violin virtuosos, star athletes, and memory mavens. Peak condenses three decades of original research to introduce an incredibly powerful approach to learning that is fundamentally different from the way people traditionally think about acquiring a skill.

Ego Is the Enemy

"While the history books are filled with tales of obsessive visionary geniuses who remade the world in their images with sheer, almost irrational force, I've found that history is also made by individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition." (From the prologue)

The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

We are stuck, stymied, frustrated. But it needn't be this way. There is a formula for success that's been followed by the icons of history - from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs - a formula that let them turn obstacles into opportunities. Faced with impossible situations, they found the astounding triumphs we all seek.

The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure

Extreme success, by definition, lies beyond the realm of normal action. If you want to achieve extreme success, you can’t operate like everybody else and settle for mediocrity. You need to remove luck and chance from your business equation, and lock in massive success. The 10X Rule shows you how!

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

All our lives are constrained by limited space and time, limits that give rise to a particular set of problems. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? What balance of new activities and familiar favorites is the most fulfilling? These may seem like uniquely human quandaries, but they are not: computers, too, face the same constraints, so computer scientists have been grappling with their version of such problems for decades.

The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

This is an audiobook for busy people. If you want less on your plate and more for your life and career, tune in to the #1 Wall Street Journal best seller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. The ONE Thing will bring your life and your work into focus. Authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan teach you the tricks to cut through the clutter, achieve better results in less time, dial down stress, and master what matters to you.

Pre-Suasion: Channeling Attention for Change

The author of the legendary best seller Influence, social psychologist Robert Cialdini, shines a light on effective persuasion and reveals that the secret doesn't lie in the message itself but in the key moment before that message is delivered.

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

This is a book about 10 "Great Ideas". Each chapter is an attempt to savor one idea that has been discovered by several of the world's civilizations - to question it in light of what we now know from scientific research, and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives.

Publisher's Summary

For years, our concept of the self and well-being has been dominated by the notion of self-esteem, while the old fashioned value of willpower has been disparaged by psychologists who argued that we’re largely driven by unconscious forces beyond our control. In Willpower Baumeister and Tierney turn this misinformation on its head to reveal self-control as arguably the single most powerful indicator of success.

Baumeister discovered that willpower actually has a physical basis to it: it is like a muscle that can be strengthened with practice, and fatigued from overuse. That’s why eating and sleeping - and especially failing to do either of those - have such dramatic effects on self-control.

Yet, while self-control is biologically rooted, we have the capacity to manipulate our nature. Willpower features personal stories from entrepreneurs, executives, parents and children who have managed to do just that. The characters range from Victorian explorers to modern homemakers, from college students pulling all nighters to entertainers. The practical lessons in self-control conditioning they provide are nothing short of life changing.

Combining the best of modern social science with the practical wisdom of David Allen, Ben Franklin, and others, Baumeister and Tierney here share the definitive compendium of modern lessons in willpower.

I listened to this book because of a positive review I read, and I am glad I did. I am always skeptical of the "7 Habits" kind of stuff about making improvements, so I was a little concerned about where this book might be going. But the authors aren't really pretending to change your life with extravagant claims. They lay out some of the science behind how self-control works in human beings in an accessible but not fluffy way, and they make a few practical suggestions about how you might make use of that knowledge. You could change your life considerably, but it is mostly up to you. This was an entertaining, practical look at something we all have experience with but about which most of us (until now) haven't understood very much.

I know that I find value in an audiobook when I have listened to it several times. This is one of a couple that fall in that category.

I've had a recent explosion in my life. I'm happier, more positive, I'm doing better, I'm getting things done, I'm more confident, and as I alluded to in a previous review, I kid you not, I've had more smiles thrown my way than in my lifetime! Yes, I've shed a few pounds, but I think there is a little positive aura following me instead of that dark cloud.

In fairness, It's not just one book. In fact, the initial spark was me needing change. I was at one of those points in life where I needed to be more productive, happier, etc. Point is, I needed to go somewhere - I just didn't know where or how, and a few books are helping me pave a path.

I got sick of listening to "rah, rah" books, instead searching for books that provide scientific proof of why I act in certain manners, many times contrary to my goals. This is one of several books that are relevant in my recent successes: Positive Intelligence, Positivity, Getting Things Done and The Power of Habit are others. These books have provided me with serious fuel, instead of just a momentary spike in motivation.

The nice thing about enjoying a book is that the author often turns you on to one or two books - Willpower made reference to Getting Things Done - that book as been good for me as well. It works for me, and that's important.

Willpower led me to change a few bad habits. It has taught me, as has The Power of Habit, that I can replace bad habits - and do so with baby steps - something that had a negative connotation in my life before for whatever reason. By performing what seem like insignificant good little habits, we start tweaking our brains and then, intelligently, ask ourselves after spotting a not-so-good habit, "Gee, why do I do this?" I've just never made this kind of progress and I feel great about it. I dislike reviewing books after just reading it because it will be more positive than the results. I'm cautious, but I've turned a corner boys and girls, and these books are helping. I plan on making some serious dents to my saboteurs. Trust me, I've had an army of them, and they've been disguised very well.

As a side note, I have found that listening to the audiobooks repeatedly helps not only my comprehension, but it's kind of like a mental workout - I'll show up where I need to with a stronger, active, positive, curious brain instead of the ol' reptile brain.

What made the experience of listening to Willpower the most enjoyable?

It was an inspiration to me as I took my walks in the morning. It compelled me to walk longer. As I listened I felt an increased desire to learn how to train my mind and continued walking.

Which character – as performed by Denis O'Hare – was your favorite?

It was easy to listen to Denis read. It felt like he was sitting next to me telling me what he knows.

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

He talks about planning ahead in developing willpower. The chapter where he addresses procrastination was also very useful.

Any additional comments?

None of the ideas in this book were new to me. I have studied practices that are designed to train the mind for 8 years now. What was unique about this book was all of the research that supports what has been known by sages for thousands of years. As a teacher it also supported the work being done to increase stamina for reading in children as outlined by the book

Social psychologist Roy Baumeister and New York Times science writer John Tierney take on the fascinating topic of willpower. The claim of the the authors is that willpower is physical, like muscles, and can be strengthened with use and practice.

The thesis of Willpower is strongly supported by many studies and real world situations.

I give my Sansa Fuze 5 stars for performance here as I used it on fast speed which is about 20 percent faster. It added some pep to the reading as the material is not complex or convoluted, and with some familiarity with psychology ideas was easy going. At normal speed it went a tad slow for my liking.

It took all my willpower to stay with this book to the end. I did so in the hope that it would culminate in some sort of wisdom or impart some tips that would help. I did have to skip forward about 1/2 way through the wholly unnecessary Stanley chapter replete with murders and cannibalism.

The book blurb indicated this would be a useful book but it was really just a recounting of dozens upon dozens of behavioral experiments. O'Hare's narration of ultra-boring text made me think I was listening to Ben Stein (who can actually be funny). Baumeister was always referred to in the third person, so it seemed like Tierney must have done the bulk of the writing. Hopefully they will not all collaborate on a sequel.

In the end, I suppose there were a few semi-precious gems that made me think about my willpower issues and what to do about them but these could have been summed up in an hour or so - no need for eight hours of Baumeister patting himself on the back for being smarter than the average behavioral scientist, which is what he seems to be telling himself.

Although the book seems a little "disorganized", the content is nonetheless extremely interesting. I can't say I knew much about willpower prior to reading this book, so I felt that I have truly benefited from the information that I managed to absorb.

The content is not difficult to grasp, but just like reading a text book, I feel that it is crammed with information. The fact that the authors include backup for their findings and discuss the research they base their theories on, helps with the credibility. One criticism stuck out: even though motivation is a very large topic in and of itself, I was surprised that it was not mentioned at all in the book. Willpower and motivation seem to me to go hand-in-hand...

I had high hopes for this book, since lack of willpower is one of the banes of my existence. And there ARE many interesting descriptions of this trait and some useful information about how to build up your self-control muscle.

But there are also some disappointingly bland recommendations. Need a to-do list? Try Dave Allen's GTD. Have problems with alcohol? Go to an AA meeting. Kids giving you trouble? Tell them to sit up straight. Not feeling much purpose in life? Go to church. Have trouble sticking to a diet? As I read the book, the message is: you're out of luck. Self-control is maintained by glucose, so to cut down on eating, you have to eat.

More troubling to me is the chapter that trumpets Henry Stanley, explorer of Africa and finder of Dr Livingstone, as a hero of self-control. Maybe he was, but even on the evidence given in the book itself, there wasn't much else to admire about him. He was a liar and a deserter, and his expeditions to Africa were responsible for countless atrocities. (The book tries to make a case that Stanley himself wasn't personally involved, but it's pretty lame.) He was also partly responsible for Leopold of Belgium's horrific rule over the Congo. Surely there were better examples than this, especially for a book representing the latest scientific research into ways of overcoming human suffering!

It is a brilliant and thoroughly practically applicable work. I was pausing to take notes easily every 10 minutes.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Willpower?

It's not really about memorable moments, although there are many. It's that you actually begin to understand what this thing called self-control is, how important it is, and how to improve it.

Have you listened to any of Denis O'Hare’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't listened to this narrator, but he narrates very well here.

What insight do you think you’ll apply from Willpower?

Hopefully, with time, every one :) in truth, this is the most practically applicable book written by an academic that I've ever read. To say it's based on research would almost be an insult -- it almost _is_ research, as literally every statement is backed up by an explanation of a relevant scientific study. Yet, unlike most academics writing books, the author takes great pains to make it understandable to the reader and practically applicable to him. This is truly rare. Even seminal works such as Goleman's Emotional Intelligence suffer from the opposite -- a very erudite professor just talking about things he and his colleagues have researched, without a care about structure, the reader's ability to comprehend or practical return on his time invested.

Any additional comments?

This is an absolutely brilliant book, for me it sets a new standard for what a 5-star book of this sort can be.